The class of thermoplastic polymers is well known in the art in part because of the useful characteristic of many such materials of being heat deformable at relatively low temperatures. Such thermoplastics are processed by conventional methods including extrusion, injection molding or thermoforming into films, fibers, sheets and shaped or molded articles of established utility. However, the low temperature deformation property that makes many thermoplastics useful serves to preclude their use in applications where higher temperatures are likely to be encountered. Moreover, continued exposure to elevated temperature often results in undue degradation of the plastic.
Many if not most thermoplastics are polymeric in character having repeating units designed in part to increase the molecular weight and thus the melting point or glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic in order to increase its usefulness in higher temperature applications. An alternate approach to overcoming the problem of poor performance at higher temperatures is through the use of thermoplastics which incorporate cyclic or polycyclic structures within the polymeric molecule. The production of such thermoplastics frequently involves a complex synthesis and/or a somewhat unusual catalyst system. It would be of advantage to provide a novel class of polycyclic thermoplastics having more desirable high temperature properties.